Vintage Cow Made in Japan Salt Pepper Set

How cute are these bovines?

I scored them at the local flea market. This flea market is so old school and AWESOME. I have found several treasures at very good prices.

This set includes a creamer, salt & pepper shakers and sugar jar.

I love their little faces!

Mermaid Madness

In the thrifting world----mermaids are HOT.

Popular in the 1950's and 1960's, mermaids, seahorses and fish were all the rage for bathroom decor.

Now these same pieces are bringing record prices to Ebay.

I recently came across a cute mermaid planter at a local flea market. She was only $12.

She sold for 76.00.

Lefton's usually go for the higher amounts but names such as Shafford, Bradley, Holt Howard, and Norcrest always bring a pretty penny too.

So if you are out thrifting and come across any mermaids, be sure to snatch it up!

Thankful to Be Here

Today is one year since I was discharged from the hospital after giving birth to Karsen.

I was so excited to be going home with my new baby and I was super excited to see my children who had been at home waiting for me.

During my 2 day recovery stay, I was having back pains which I mentioned to my nurses. They brought me a fancy heating pad and gave me extra motrin.

I also noticed a weird sound when I was laying down breathing but I thought maybe I was getting a cold.

The day after Karsen & I got home I felt miserable. I hurt. I felt like I had been hit by a truck. I attributed it to not taking my pain medicine as regularly as I had in the hospital.

Two days after being home from the hospital, I knew something was wrong. I could hear myself breathing and it sounded really bad. My feet were swollen even worse than they were at the hospital. I had no energy. I couldn't even yell for my son, Jonathan to come help me.

John made an appointment for me that day to see a Dr at the hospital where I gave birth.

I could barely make it to the receptionist desk before I was out of breath.

They rushed me into a room and my blood pressure was a staggering 183/110.

I was scared. I thought I must have developed a blood clot.

The Dr heard what he thought was a heart murmur and I was sent to the ER immediately by wheel chair.

I was taken into the ER and bypassed all of the awaiting people who looked pissed that I was getting to go before them. All I could think of was, "I'm dying here so cut me some slack!"

An EKG was administered as I was wheeled into a triage room and the results were not good. Something bad was going on with my heart. I also had tons of fluid on my lungs. This was no joke.

John was told it wasn't best to have our 3 day old Karsen in the ER so he had to leave me there in the ER alone. I was a wreck emotionally. Karsen had never had a bottle in her 3 day life...how was he going to manage? I cried and cried as he left with my tiny baby.

I was so scared. All I knew was I didn't want to die. Karsen needed me. All my babies did.

After a long wait in the ER, I was taken to the ICU floor. No bathroom, no shower, the toilet slid out from under the sink bedside my bed. The walls are all glass. All I could do was cry. This was a scary floor. Nothing like the maternity wing I had just left 48 hours earlier. I was by far the youngest person on this floor.

The next day I was given a cardiogram and it showed us what had happened. I had mitral valve regurgitation and it was putting me into congestive heart failure. I was put on blood pressure meds and kept another day. Slowly my heart rate improved, they got 20lbs of fluid off of me and my oxygen levels slowly returned to normal.

My phone didn't work in the hospital so no one outside of my immediate family really knew what was going on. I was so isolated and angry that no one caught this before I was discharged with Karsen.

By the 2nd day, I was begging the doctors to let me leave. My kids, especially my baby needed me home. They finally relented and for the 2nd time in less than a week I was discharged from the hospital.

I came very close. Had I not listened to my body's warning signs that something was off who knows what would have happened.

It was scary but I am ok now and even have come off the blood pressure pills. I went to the Dr last week and my blood pressure was 110/83. =)

I have to give thanks to God for keeping me here to see my baby grow up this year. Today is kind of bittersweet. I had no idea one year ago going home with Karsen was something I should treasure as much as the occasion deserved. Not every mom gets to go home with her baby.

Karsen's 1st Party

Raini's song to Papa

Papa & Raini loved fishing.

It was "their" thing. Sometimes they would let me tag along but Papa would get annoyed at me because I didn't like touching the bait and if I did catch something (which was rare) I wouldn't take it off the line. I was too prissy sometimes.

I loved how Papa gave all four of us grand-girls so much of himself.

He made us all feel like we were his #1.

And fishing with Raini was his way of spending precious time together.

This song is soooo them, expect for the part where they throw back what they caught.

Papa would never throw back anything big enough to fry.

And she thinks we’re just fishin’ on the riverside
Throwin’ back what we could fry
Drownin’ worms and killin’ time
Nothin’ too ambitious
She ain’t even thinkin’ ‘bout
What’s really goin’ on right now
But I guarantee this memory’s a big’in
And she thinks we’re just fishin’

Little One is ONE

One year ago today, I met her.

And she healed a very broken heart.

The labor was relatively easy. Pushing was a breeze.

She was perfect. And I was in love.

We were all in love. The year has gone by so quickly.

This month you are:
*you shake your head "no" when you are dancing
*you still say "da-da", not MOMA!
*you are crawling but not on your knees, but on your feet.
*you love ice tea from Nanny's cup
*you still love sleeping with mommy
*you are covered in bruises on your little legs where you climb over everything.
*you are starting to recognize your west va family and love them
*you still aren't taking an afternoon nap unless I lay with you
*you love spaghetti
*you love your new bathtub with the jets turned on and lots of bubbles

Party Perfect

What a great party we had yesterday for Little One.

Even my mom & moma jo drove up from North Carolina to help us celebrate.

It's hard to believe that last year, on this Sunday, I was preparing to enter the hospital to be induced for her birth!

What an amazing year this has been. God truly healed my heart with her arrival.

Karsen's Party

The cupcake toppers turned out so cute that I had to list them in my Etsy store!

My Sidekick is Sick

My sidekick is sick.

Really sick.

She may have gall stones trapped in her bile duct. She has been in pain for the last month or so.
She was supposed to travel to WVA this week to help me with Karsen's 1st birthday party.

But the pain was pretty bad and I didn't want her to drive so far without knowing what was causing the pain. So I urged her to see a specialist instead of making the trip here.

She goes for a CT scan tomorrow.

I am so worried about her and I hate being so far away.

She is my sidekick. She "gets" me. We always have so much fun together. We laugh until we could pee ourselves at the craziest things. I miss her so much.

We always try our hardest to NEVER let one another down. I feel like I let her down by telling her not to come.

I am worried sick about her. Please say a prayer that everything is OK and the Dr's can diagnose and fix whatever is causing my sidekick to hurt.

I love you, Raini and I miss you to infinity.

Summer Fun 2011

This summer has been a little stressful.

We knew in early June that we would be moving to West Virginia. Which meant we needed to find a new home ASAP. Luckily, we had never considered buying anything in Richmond so at least that part would be easy. It took over 9 months for our home in NC to sell.

It also meant that in between all the packing we would need to sprinkle in some fun for the kids.

We did the best we could at doing that.

We enjoyed an extended trip to North Carolina, a trip to Virginia Beach & Busch Gardens, trips to Belle Isle, the Civil War Museum and the Holocaust Museum in Richmond, and the boys took in a Reds game in Cincinnati.

One of the downers of being in WV is that school will begin next week. In Richmond, school doesn't start until after Labor Day. So, the kids are bummed about having a shortened summer by 3 weeks but we are all ready to begin this new adventure in our new home state!